“I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God while I have being.
May my meditation be pleasing to him,
for I rejoice in the Lord.”
– Psalm 104:33-34
As we consider singing praise to God as long as we live, we must surely realize that our life won’t always be pleasant or easy. “As long as I live” includes times of health and times of illness. Times of strength and times of weakness. Times when the world goes our way and times when nothing seems to go our way. Times of love and times of loneliness. Seasons of success and seasons of failure. Nonetheless, like the psalmist, we too can sing to the Lord as long as we live. How?
By rejoicing “in” the Lord, not merely for or to Him. The psalmist isn’t merely rejoicing for the Lord or for what the Lord has done or given. Those are good and important things for which we should rejoice and give thanks. Nonetheless, our outward circumstances and material blessings shouldn’t be the primary cause of our rejoicing. Our greatest source of joy must be that we are in the Lord!
As followers of Jesus, Christ is in us and we are in Him. We are united with Him. He Who suffered all things for our redemption promises that He is with us always. He will neither leave us nor forsake us. In Christ, God calls us beloved child and friend. We call Him Father and know that He is the perfect Father. He welcomes us before Him. He listens to us. He loves us. He forgives us. This is how and why we sing to the Lord as long as we live and why we can and should praise Him for however long we draw breath. May our meditations please Him. “Rejoice in the Lord always, again, I will say, rejoice!”